


One Moment

by QueenStrata (yodepalma)



Series: The Eden Trilogy [2]
Category: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Aziraphale has a thing for strays, Gen, Human Crowley, M/M, OOC Crowley, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Poor Crowley, Pre-Canon, Pre-Slash, Technically also Post-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-30
Updated: 2014-07-30
Packaged: 2018-02-11 02:52:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2050779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yodepalma/pseuds/QueenStrata
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They had never spoken after the Garden, had no idea that they were fighting each other. Even so, when Crowley was in need of help, Aziraphale was there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Moment

**Author's Note:**

> Old fic being reposted blahblahwhatever. Sequel to A Taste of Humanity. I meant to post this two weeks ago, but my research fellowship was winding up then and I overestimated how much time I had to myself. Sorry?
> 
> Trufax: I actually wrote this story first out of the trilogy, and it was based entirely on a poem about a guy who found a snake at his water pump. I regret nothing.

Aziraphale came to a halt at the bottom of his stairs, staring blankly at the scene before him. A demon was leaning against the angel's water pump, cup held tightly in its shaking hand. It was in a human body, as would usually be expected, but there was something _wrong_ with it. The skin had a sickly pallor to it and there were deep lines under the eyes—it took Aziraphale's startled mind a few minutes to revive and really take in what it was seeing. When the truth finally occurred to him, his pitcher dropped to the stone with a clatter.

The demon jumped at the sudden noise, eyes wide in fright—its feet slipped out from under it and it crashed painfully to the ground, a shocked look etched on its face. The demon stared at him.

Aziraphale stared blankly back.

After a few minutes of neither being doing anything, the demon licked its lips and then slowly returned to its former position, trying rather desperately to get itself some water.

Aziraphale merely kept watching it, silently fighting against himself. He knew he should really attack the demon while it was weakened, but his kind heart rebelled at the thought. It didn't seem very honorable to attack anyone, even a demon, when it had no means of defense—and besides, the poor creature already looked absolutely miserable and Aziraphale's heart went out to it in sympathy. He simply _couldn't_ hurt the thing, no matter how very wrong it felt to let a creature of Hell alone.

As Aziraphale argued with himself, the demon struggled hopelessly with the pump. Subconsciously, though, the angel was feeling extremely sorry for it and his body moved itself a few steps forward, apparently intent on helping. But before Aziraphale could realize what he was doing and thereby stop himself, the demon's human body finally gave out on it. It would have fallen sprawled to the ground if Aziraphale hadn't reacted quickly and caught it halfway down.

It was unconscious.

Aziraphale stared uncertainly at the prone body in his arms. He had never, in all his time on Earth, seen a demon so affected by its human body, and had nearly no idea what to do. The only thing he could think of to do was to get his burden inside out of then sun—but that was mostly to conceal Aziraphale's minor bit of treachery.

He carried the demon into his house and put it on his bed (which he only had for looks). Then, not thinking about what he was doing, he snapped a cup of water to existence and put it to the demon's lips to try and make it drink. Then, after he assured himself that most of the water had gotten into the demon rather than _on_ to the demon, he changed the cup to a wet cloth and patted at his new companion's face. Hoping to himself that doing so wouldn't hurt his patient, Aziraphale attempted a very small miracle of healing, wanting to fix whatever was wrong. To his relief (and surprise, to be perfectly honest), the demon suffered no ill effects.

In fact, rather than stay unconscious as Aziraphale had hoped, the demon soon woke up and stared up at him. Aziraphale stared back and smiled just the tiniest bit.

The demon didn't even blink.

"Are you all right?" Aziraphale asked eventually, though he didn't really need to. "You seemed quite ill."

"What do you care?" the demon rasped at him, and then winced and clutched its throat. However, it seemed absolutely determined to finish its thought and continued, "What do you want from me, angel?"

"Right now I just want to make sure you'll be fine," Aziraphale returned mildly, unaffected by the demon's hostility. He had expected it anyway.

"Why?" the demon snarled.

"Because you collapsed out by my pump and I've never seen a demon ill before. I mean you no harm." The demon looked suspicious. Aziraphale sighed. "I swear that no harm will come to you by my hand until you are fully healed and have left my home—unless you should attack me first and I am forced to defend myself."

The demon didn't relax any, but its look of suspicion disappeared.

"No," the demon said. It took Aziraphale a moment to realize it was answering his question. "I'm being punished for several botched jobs—ones that I think _you_ botched, by the way—by being forced to live as a normal human being either until I die or until they remember that they've punished me. I've been attacked, run over, run into, defecated on, bitten by several bugs I never even knew _existed_ until now, propositioned by several prostitutes I would never deign to look at with anything other than disgust, blessed several times by several different religious figures, and I can't figure out how to heal whatever's currently wrong with me. I've been human for only a month so far. And to top it all off, I'm even _acting_ like a human, feeling the emotions and everything. In response to your incredibly _stupid_ question, angel, no I'm _not_ feeling all right."

Aziraphale blinked rapidly, taken aback by the unexpected onslaught of words. The demon eventually seemed to realize what it said and snarled at itself before turning its back to the angel and glaring sulkily at the wall. Aziraphale giggled softly and moved onto the bed himself, rubbing soothing circles on the demon's back. The demon shivered only the slightest bit before tensing up.

"You can stay here until you regain your powers, if you like," Aziraphale offered kindly. "I'll take care of you, okay?" The demon didn't reply. Aziraphale smiled to himself and moved close, enveloping the demon in a comforting embrace. It hesitantly melted against him. "What's your name?"

"Crowley," the demon said bitterly.

"I'm Aziraphale," Aziraphale introduced himself. Crowley tensed, but Aziraphale paid it no mind. "And don't worry about your human emotions. I promise I won't hold you to anything you say or do as a human—I know it won't be how you really are."

Crowley didn't say anything. But what it did do was turn into Aziraphale's embrace and lay its head cautiously on the angel's shoulder. Aziraphale returned to rubbing circles into the demon's back.

They stayed like that, enjoying each other's company, until the next day.


End file.
